Do, Do, Do, Lookin' Out My Back Door

This is my deck after the blizzard of 2010. We've never had the snow piled so high.


I stuck my yardstick to see how tall it was. I was shocked to see it 25 inches. I have been out since the blizzard and it's still dangerous. At the end of our street, the snow is so high that you have to pull out into the intersection to see if there is a car coming. The snow is as tall as my car.

It is also in the single digits with it -20 below at night. This means the salt that the snowplows has put down will not melt the snow or ice. That makes driving on side streets very dangerous. It's slow going if you don't want to get into an accident. The weatherman said tonight that the temps will be below normal the rest of December.

Woeful Wednesday

I guess the title pretty much sums up my week. The 2o year old furnace decided it was time for
a new one. I had the furnace guy out and even though we weren't in immediate danger, with such an old furnace it was on borrowed time. So I talked to Rocketman and we decided to take advantage of the Fed Rebate of $1500.00 and get a new high efficiency furnace and air conditioner. It's going to be installed next Tuesday.

Our computer has been giving me a lot of trouble and Rocketman finally decided what he wanted and ordered it last week. On Sunday, our computer decided it didn't want to power up. I tried all day to no avail. The new one showed up on Monday, the same day the furnace decided not to work properly.

The day was stressful and I was about to call the Geek Squad when I decided to say another prayer and turn on the computer. It powered up!!! I couldn't believe it. So I am not turning it off until the new one is up and running. Poor Rocketman has to take all the information on the old one and put it onto the new one.

To relieve my stress I've been knitting. I made the pumpkin hat above for the little grandbaby that is coming in June. It really does help to keep my fingers busy. I had my weekly knitting class today and everything I had done was ripped out. You would think that after making one sock the mate would be a piece of cake. Well it's not!


I also took a class at my local quilt shop and made this snazzy purse. The pattern is for three different sizes and I love how it turned out. I added a JHB button to top it off. It was a fun class and since there were only two of us, it went pretty fast. If I had time I would make a couple for gifts this year but I think I will have to put that on my list for next year.

Maedeup Monday!

This video contains my other two segments I taped on "Creative Living with Sheryl Borden." The first segment I am demonstrating a polymer clay refrigerator magnet and the second segment is the hapjong maedeup.

I am hoping to get my computer issues resolved since all my pictures are on my non-working computer.

Houston, We Have a Problem

Or should I say, Rocketman, we have a problem. I am been freezing all week and wondering what was going on with me. I kept raising the temperature on the thermostat and yet I was still frozen.

We have an indoor/outdoor thermometer that needed a new battery so finally on Friday I dug out some triple A's and put them into the thermometer. I was shocked to see the reading and how off our thermostat was. I had been keeping the thermostat at 70 which had the indoor temperature at 61 to 62. No wonder I was freezing.

I talked to Rocketman and he felt we should have someone come out and look at the furnace. We have gone through multiple thermostats and it could be that but he felt that with a 20 year old furnace, it would be a good idea to rule the furnace out.

It was Friday night by now and I called our furnace guy and they will be out on Monday. I didn't want to pay for an emergency call and I can now use my thermometer to monitor the actual temperature. I'm a little scared of it being the furnace and hearing the cost of new furnace/air conditioning units at $10,000.

Then I woke up this morning and powered up the computer to find that it will not power up. After the initial shock and trying many times to power it up, I noticed that the keyboard wasn't lighting up. It may be just the keyboard or something more serious. Luckily, I have this backup laptop computer but it doesn't have my old emails. I owe some answers and don't have the emails addresses to use on this computer. So I'm kinda in the weeds until I figure it out.

Rocketman just happened to order a new computer last week (maybe the old one knew that) and it will be here tomorrow. My plan is to use that keyboard and see if I can reboot my old computer. If not, I may have to wait for Rocketman or place a service call with someone. I'm really at a loss.

Hopefully, this will be the end of the bad luck for awhile.

Pillow-Making Class

I also took a pillow-making class this week at my local quilt shop. I made this beautiful scalloped edge pillow. There were four of us in the class and we got to go at our own speed. They had outlets set up for our sewing machines and also ironing boards ready to go.

The class was two and a half hours long. The time flew buy and I was thrilled with how my pillow turned out. I bought enough for two so as soon as I arrived home I made the second pillow. They look great on my bed.

Today I awoke to about 6-8 inches of snow. The snowblower started without incident and my driveway looks marvelous. They are saying we are in for a chilly week. I have another sewing class on Tuesday and my weekly knitting class on Wednesday. A busy but fun week ahead.

Enameling Class

I had my first enameling class since learning enameling while living in South Korea. The class was a community ed class and took place in a local middle school shop room. The class was $80.00 for three hours.

I arrived at the school about 15 minutes early and found that our teacher hadn't arrived yet. So I sat down on a bench while a few more students arrived. The teacher finally got there at 6 which was when the class was to begin.

We made our way into the room along with his two bins of supplies. He let us know that he knew very little about enameling and when we left that night we would know just a little less than him. I didn't think that, along with being late, was a good start. He spent the first half hour explaining enameling.

I was interested in how to clean the copper since that is where I was hung up. He didn't have any answers for why my Korean copper would not clean but he said to stay clear of nitric acid which is what my Korean teacher uses. I've decided to get some U.S. copper and see how that works.

He said that the majority of the class would be about playing with the enamels. He really didn't give any instructions of things to do so luckily I had some ideas from my Korean classes. He said his job was to man the kiln.

We prepared the copper by cleaning it and then applying a liquid coat of enamel followed by a sifted dry coat. We did both sides at once which was very different than what I had learned in Korea.

Then we decorated the enamel any way we wanted. We had to finish up by 8:30 so his kiln could cool down. There were four of us in class and the others seemed to be having a great time. My intention was to have some instruction in English and perhaps learn something that my Korean teacher couldn't communicate.

All in all, it was nice to get out and meet new people but for now I think I will stick to my Nan, my Korean enameling teacher. She really is the best!

One Down, One To Go

I finished my sock. It included two emergency trips to the yarn shop for help but I was able to finish it up the last day of class. My teacher has an ongoing Wednesday morning class where you bring what you are working on or questions and she's there to help. Today was my first day and I was surprised and happy to see a gal from my sock class. She is still working on her first sock.

You would think that since I had completed one sock that the second one would be a breeze. Wrong! I feel like I didn't learn a thing. Eileen, my teacher, is so patient with me and also very encouraging.

I bought another set of needles to begin to work on a second pair of socks. I thought it would be a great idea to make two sets at the same time. I have a feeling I will be taking this Wednesday class a very long time. It's a great way for me to get out and meet new people. The class is two hours long and the time flies with the knitting and talking that goes on. I have an enameling class tonight and am very excited.